It is unfortunately official: the HTC Desire HD is unlikely to get its Ice Cream Sandwich update, says the manufacturer, but the American version on AT&T, the Inspire 4G, is getting a refresh bringing HTC Sense 3.0 to the phone.

Thanks to some talented folks over at XDA Developers, if you’ve got an unlocked HTC Desire HD, Desire S, or Inspire you now have a custom ROM that will bring not only Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, but also HTC Sense UI 3.5 to your smartphone!

Based on the HTC Runnymede‘s ROM, these ROMs are pretty complete with few known bugs.

If you’ve got one of these devices and want to check out the latest and greatest from HTC, head on over to the source and let us know what you think in the comments below!

Last month, AT&T promised that all of the Androids that it had started selling so far this year (as well as some from 2010) that didn’t come with Gingerbread already installed would be receiving updates to Android 2.3 at some point. Now the software update is ready for one of the models on that list, the HTC Inspire 4G.

The Inspire 4G received an update to enable HSUPA mode back in April, giving users a well-appreciated boost to their data speeds. Now with Gingerbread here, the Inspire 4G is shaping up to be a nicely-supported Android, update-wise.

If you’re looking to pick up an Android on AT&T that’s running Gingerbread, your options are pretty limited; you’ve got the HTC Status, Motorola’s Atrix is getting its update currently, and now the carrier has access to Samsung’s Nexus S. That’s progress, sure, but we’re in the second half of 2011, where the coming approach of Ice Cream Sandwich is nearer to us in time than last year’s release of Gingerbread. If you’ve been stressing over if your Android will ever be getting an update of its own, the carrier is speaking up with [...]

Previously we saw some leaked photos of a red HTC Inspire 4G, allegedly on its way to RadioShack. An anonymous tipster just sent us a photo of the placard for the red Inspire 4G, showing a price of $49.99 after a two year agreement, which is the same price as the black version currently on sale at RadioShack. Our tipster tells us that the phones are likely to arrive this week and be on sale as early as Tuesday or Wednesday.

If you’ve got an HTC Inspire 4G, HTC Aria, or Samsung Captivate on AT&T, you should soon be receiving notification of an OTA update that will finally enable your phone to install apps from “unknown sources”, letting you access Amazon’s Appstore or install non-marketplace apps of your choosing.

After a long period of restricting its Android users to only the official Google-run Android Market, AT&T announced this spring that it would finally start looking into letting its customers install apps from additional sources. It wasn’t clear then [...]

Just as long as you live in one of the few cities in the US that has AT&T HSPA+ high-speed cellular data, the HTC Inspire 4G is one of the best Android phones out there right now, thanks to its very high build quality, great performance (powered by a 1Ghz single-core Snapdragon and 768MB of RAM), and compelling HTC Sense enhancements. If you’re looking to stand out from the crowd, you’ll soon be able to pick up an Inspire 4G in red from RadioShack. Every part of the phone, including the bezel surrounding the camera, will be colored in bright red. Is red the color [...]

The HTC Inspire 4G on AT&T might have HSUPA disabled — at least until a firmware update re-enables it — but it also had its Kernel Source Code released by the manufacturer which always means custom ROMs are on their way pronto.

There’s a custom kernel for Cyanogenmod 7 over at XDA Developers which is modified to overclock the smartphone’s processor to 1.8GHz — among other features added. Overclocking a Qualcomm 1Ghz Snapdragon CPU to 1.8GHz, meaning an 80% increase of frequency is dangerous as with the case of any other overclocking procedures [...]

Recently both the Motorola Atrix 4G and the HTC Inspire 4G received an update to enable HSUPA to allow for faster uploads. While this doesn’t mean that the devices will be suddenly capable of 4G-like HSPA+ speeds (which exists in a very limited number of places), you’ll be able to at least get upload speeds that aren’t similar to what you’d experience over EDGE (which is currently the case for some Atrix 4G and Inspire 4G owners). The update came in the form of a quick OTA update that requires you be over WiFi.

HTC seems to be able to account for an excellent first quarter of 2011 with record high quarterly revenues of NT$104.16bn ($3.63 billion) and net profits of NT$14.83bn ($517.21 million).

Additionally, HTC reportedly sold 9.7 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2011, which is 192% more than it did in the first quarter of 2010. Compared to the last quarter, Q4 of 2010, HTC sold 6% more and the higher numbers are mainly due to the growing demand for Android-powered smartphones.

Exceptional Q1 numbers are also due to smartphones just released, the Inspire 4G, [...]

We’ve known that the HTC Inspire 4G hardware supports HSUPA, but without the feature turned-on in software, the phone hasn’t been able to reach 4G-caliber speeds on AT&T’s network. This isn’t an exclusive problem to the Inspire, with other Android models suffering the same fate. We had heard that AT&T was working on finally activating high-speed uploads for these models, but so far there hasn’t been any evidence to suggest progress. Now HTC has made an FCC filing signaling that the Inspire 4G will receive a software update to enable the [...]

Previously we compared the HTC Thunderbolt with the iPhone 4. Moving on to another comparison, the HTC Thunderbolt and Inspire 4G are two of the hottest 4G smartphones right now. The Inspire 4G can be had for just $99 on AT&T with a new two year contract. To that, you’re likely to add the $25/month data plan which gives you 2GB of data transfer. The Thunderbolt is much more expensive at $249, and the data plan of choice is the $30/month unlimited plan. Both devices can do tethering for an added $20 per month, which gives you 2GB of data transfer.

We’ve been having a difficult time tracking down AT&T’s supposed 4G network, as has the vast majority of Atrix 4G and Inspire 4G owners. The lack of HSUPA support on these devices mean that data speeds actually benchmark worse than 3G devices. Nevertheless, AT&T’s 4G HSPA+ network, which is only available in places with “enhanced backhaul” (for which there exists no coverage map), has been spotted in Detroit, as you can see in the below video. YouTube user lopertit6 was able to clock a pretty impressive 4.8mbps down in one run of the [...]

The HTC Thunderbolt has essentially the same specs as the Inspire 4G, but with inclusion of the 4G LTE radio. It has a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8655 CPU, which performs better than the chip found on the EVO 4G. It has 768MB of RAM, providing plenty of multitasking prowess. In terms of storage, you get about 2.5GB onboard, and another 30GB through the 32GB microSD card, granting you about 32.5GB of space for apps, music, and whatever else you store on your phone. The Super LCD display is 4.3″ and 800×480 resolution and provides a fantastic level of color saturation and [...]

We don’t talk much about digital zoom because most people recognize that it produces poor results. Sure, at times it can be helpful, especially if you’re working with a smartphone that has a very high resolution sensor, but most of the time, it just leaves you wanting the optical zoom that only a real camera can offer.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t compare digital zooms! In this video, we compare the iPhone 4 with the Inspire 4G (Desire HD) and Samsung Focus. Each are running a different operating system, and each produces different results.

T-Mobile has published an infographic as part of a campaign to “enlighten” people that the Apple iPhone 4 — available on AT&T and Verizon — does not, despite of the “4” in its name, support 4G speeds.

Besides promoting their own speed, T-Mobile — the rabbit above compared to the two turtles — also claims lowest data costs per month compared to AT&T’s and Verizon’s iPhone 4 3G data plans. Not that anybody ever claimed that the “4” from the iPhone had anything to do with 4G, T-Mobile will tell you [...]

HTC has just made the source code of the 2.6.32 kernel for the Inspire 4G available for download through their Developer Center.

The Android kernel contains not only the software layer that bridges the gap between hardware and apps, it also includes various drivers and code beyond that which most would typically consider part of the kernel.

End users don’t directly benefit from this type of release but developers do — professional and hobbyists alike. Seeing how a company accomplishes various things programmatically not only can make other apps better, it can [...]

US 4G service has been off to a confusing start, mired with questions about what technologies are or aren’t “real” 4G, and which carriers can deliver truly next-gen mobile broadband speeds. Even if we can agree that 4G is a fitting label for all of these services, is that alone enough to guarantee the promised bandwidth? We’ve noticed some problems with the HTC Inspire 4G on AT&T claiming a 4G connection without delivering the speed we were looking for. It turns out the Inspire 4G isn’t taking advantage of HSUPA enhanced upload speeds, despite an [...]

I’m fortunate to be able to review all kinds of different phones. Because of this, I’m regularly changing phones, though at the end of the day, I always have a “go to” device, which I like to call my “Daily Driver.” Right now the Inspire 4G is my Daily Driver, previously is was Palm Pre 2, Nexus S, Samsung Focus, iPhone 4, and so on. Each mobile operating system has its pros and cons, though lately I’ve been gravitating towards Android. I really appreciate its flexibility to be customized, yet I also enjoy the cohesiveness of the experience. I [...]

We rated the HTC Inspire 4G high, which, despite (still) not having access to AT&T’s HSPA+ network in most areas, is a fast, beautiful, and quality Android phone. The price from AT&T is still just $99, which is a reasonable price for a high end smartphone. But if you go through Amazon, you can chip away another $40 to get to $60. We usually don’t see such significant price drops on high end phones just three days after their official release, so perhaps HTC/AT&T are trying to juice sales for some reason (hint: Atrix 4G is landing soon, will take all the [...]

AT&T subscribers have been patiently waiting for a 4.3-inch Android phone, and it’s finally here with the Inspire 4G. Not only that, but the new smartphone ushers in the era of 4G HSPA+ connectivity over the AT&T network, providing speeds of up to 6Mbps down, which is a 2-3 times improvement over what you’ll get with standard 3G. In essence, the Inspire 4G is a Desire HD, but with a handful of updates made to the software and hardware to keep it fresh for AT&T. Read on for our full review.

So here’s the situation: 100% of the time, when testing the Inspire 4G, we see the “H+” icon in the notification bar. The user manual says that this means that we are “Connected to 4G.” And yet, we’re not getting HSPA+ speeds. In fact, as this video shows, we’re getting speeds slower than a Nexus One running on AT&T’s 3G network, despite having full bars. In practice, according to AT&T, their HSPA+ network should be providing speeds of “up to 6mbps”.

After coming away impressed by the fit and finish of the HTC Inspire 4G for AT&T, we wanted to spend some time diving into the software offering of the new device. The Inspire includes the latest version of HTC Sense for Android, which means many subtle enhancement can be found in all stock applications like Mail, Contacts, Gallery, and Internet. Sense for Android also means that you can hook your phone up a free account at HTCSense.com and get remote phone management: you can locate your phone on a map, remotely wipe it, and lots more. Oddly, HTCSense.com has been stripped down [...]